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Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor, Op 31

Introduction

For Schumann the Second Scherzo (1837) had all the high flown passion of Byron, and Chopin insisted that the opening sinister triplets could never be sufficiently tombé in performance: like a charnel house. Chopin’s volatile question and answer blossom, surprisingly, into one of his most expansive melodies and the A major trio, a marvel of economy, evolves into the most urgent and florid virtuosity. The subsequent ‘development’ is heaven-storming, indeed, and after a nearly exact repetition of the chief material (it is suitably and rhetorically embellished at key points) the fast and furious coda unites many seemingly disparate elements in a final whirl of glory.

Recordings

'This is astonishing piano playing and Chopin interpretation, at its very best, fully measuresup to the greatness of these pieces. And to their freshn ...'In the use of words like sensational, extraordinary, phenomenal, etc., critics have to be sparing, at risk of their credibility. But these adjectives ...» More

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. This monumental recording project—first instigated by t ...» More

'These works require the utmost in panache and glitter, Demidenko's scintillating fingers provide that in spades' (Gramophone)'Demidenko is one of the most outstanding modern Chopin players … As usual, Demidenko's superb technique is plainly at the service of the music, ...» More

Five years on from his debut recording, James Rhodes has firmly established himself in the classical world as a pioneering figure—reaching out through concerts, recordings and television documentaries to create new classical music fans whilst rema ...» More

'Here’s something a little bit special to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Percy Grainger … Grainger was a charismatic pianist and a ...'The best of Grainger’s shellac efforts retain their vividness and communicative immediacy. Even if Grainger had never met and befriended Grieg, his i ...» More

The Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor, Op 31 (occasionally referred to as being in D flat major), was written in 1837, at the time when Chopin was in a dreadful state of mind, after finding out that he should abandon all hope for marriage with Wodzińska. The clue to the piece is its opening motif that, according to the composer, ‘must be a question’. Lenz reports the composer demanding the interpretation ‘be a house of the dead’, and the cantilena be produced thinking of ‘[the singer] Pasta, of Italian song!—not of French vaudeville’. Perhaps the most poignant comment on the demonic power of this piece came with Schumann’s rhetoric question ‘How is gravity to clothe itself if humour wears such dark veils?’